This past week Games for Change Africa hosted their annual festival at Africa Games Week in Cape Town. On Wednesday, 3 December 2025, they hosted a workshop entitled ‘The Game-changers’ Gathering’ which was sponsored by Xsolla and had a full house of over 70 delegates from all different sectors including representatives from NGOs/NPOs, museums, libraries, educators, corporate and various organisations associated with the City of Cape Town. Representatives from both the District Six museum and the Castle of Good Hope were amongst the attendees.
Their theme for this year’s festival was games, youth and shared spaces. Across the continent, opportunities for youth to engage with games are emerging, through creative initiatives, learning programmes, mentorship, and community projects, and some of these, including the NASEF programme, Roots & Pixels, Black Voices in Gaming, the Games for Change global Student Challenge and more, were showcased through talks and panel discussions.
G4C Africa, however, recognise that many young people don’t have access to these types of opportunities and believe that this is where public and community spaces play a powerful role. Libraries, museums, and community hubs are some of the few shared spaces open to all young people and they share that “when we bring play, creativity, and interactive learning into these environments, they become places where youth can connect with stories and heritage that ground them, while also finding inspiration for the futures they want to build”. In this way, these institutions evolve into meaningful partners in supporting the next generation.
After hearing about some powerful digital experiences designed for the District Six museum as well as an amazing library project developed by South Africans for a library in the US, this is exactly what was unpacked in working groups in the second half of the programme. Participants were guided through a framework inspired by human-centred design and game-design-thinking, and conceptualised four unique programmes – designed within our present constraints – that could be developed for youth and educators in shared spaces within our communities.
Games for Change Africa’s chairperson Glenn Gillis (CEO of one of the biggest impact game studios on the continent), says their aim is “to develop these ideas a little further and then find the financial backing and community support and partnership to bring them to realisation”.
You can find more information about Games for Change Africa on their socials or on gamesforchangeafrica.org